The MOBO Awards for "Music of Black Origin" were established in 1996 by Kanya King and Andy Ruffell. The MOBO Award show is held annually in the United Kingdom to recognise artists of any ethnicity or nationality performing black music.

In 2009, the awards ceremony was held in Glasgow for the first time. Prior to that, it had been held in London. In 2011, the ceremony returned to Scotland for a second time.

The Music Of Black Origin (MOBO) Awards were established in 1996 by Kanya King and Andy Ruffell to recognise and celebrate artists who create Black or urban music. The MOBOs may be the most prestigious but were not the first Black music awards show in Europe. In Britain, the Black Music Awards (BMA) show ran from 1992 to 1996 in various venues in London.[1][2] For non-music shows, the Afro Hair and Beauty show was set up by Dyke and Dryden beauty company in 1982,[3] and is still an annual event in London.

The first MOBO award was presented to UK trio Baby D, in the Best Dance Act category.[4] The MOBO Awards are seen as a UK equivalent to the BET Awards and Soul Train Awards for being the main award show in Britain to focus on Urban music.

The Independent newspaper columnist David Lister criticizes the MOBO awards, writing: "I find any notion of separate awards devised for black musicians, and still largely for black musicians, depressing". He went on to say[5] that such awards "limit the music and the performers they claim to honour" and "manage to be both ludicrous and dangerously divisive at the same time." Others[6] reject this criticism, calling it "pedant", and noting that MOBO simply focuses on genres just as other awards focus on other genres.

Critic Niall Crowley made allegations that the term "black music" is inaccurate, he made claims that there was a significant Jewish influences on rhythm and blues and rock n roll. He states: "Without these and many other non-African Americans who played a defining role in the evolution of rhythm and blues, we wouldn't have much of the great 'black' music we've had over the past 50 years or so." However, he did not mention what these influences were on the creation of these genres; he only referenced executives who simply owned records companies that produced several hit songs. Crowley also juxtaposes the attitudes of the MOBOs with the huge success of black performers in recent decades, writing that the awards reinforce "the idea that today's black performers are simply the latest generation of sufferers in a long history of victimhood." He argues that in reality "no one could possibly claim that recent generations of black performers have suffered at the hands of a racist music industry" and the MOBOs "encourage music fans to see discrimination and racism where there is none,[7]

DJ and music journalist "Bigger" criticises the awards for "veering away from its concept of rewarding music of black origin", suggesting this process started to occur during the second year of the awards though only became a major problem from the 2000 awards onwards. He cites winners such as Steve Jackson and Mick Hucknall as evidence that the awards were being "diluted", despite the huge influence Hucknall in particular has had on the modern British soul scene. He also criticises the increasing American domination of the event and commercialisation, arguing that by its fourth year MOBO stood for "music of big organisations".[8]

Kanya King launched the MOBO awads in 1996, aiming to establish a platform for music that, according to King, encompasses urban, hip hop, R&B and reggae. After failing to raise support for her plan, she raised funds by re-mortgaging her house.[9]

Emeli Sandé won awards for Best Female, Best Album and Best R&B/Soul while Plan B took Best Male Act and Best Hip Hop/Grime. TLC were awarded Outstanding Contribution to Music, with Dionne Warwick receiving the MOBO Lifetime Achievement Award. The full list of winners where: